NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / May 19, 2017 / The European Union has just given Facebook an enormous fine over a promise it has failed to keep regarding its acquisition of WhatsApp. Twitter's shares moved slightly ahead despite a new feature next month being added that could be a major invasion of privacy for many users.

RDI Initiates Coverage on:

Facebook, Inc.
https://ub.rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=FB

Twitter, Inc.
https://ub.rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=TWTR

Facebook Inc.'s shares closed up 1.94% on Thursday despite being hit with a European Union fine over its WhatsApp takeover back in 2014. The social networking giant has been slapped with a $122 million fine for making misleading statements during the WhatsApp purchase. This, despite being one of the biggest regulatory penalties that Facebook has ever had, $122 million does-not look too damaging for a company that posted $8.03 billion of revenue last quarter. According to the European Union's antitrust chief, Margrethe Vestager, Facebook had told the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, that it would not combine the company's data with that of WhatsApp. The problem is that last August Facebook announced that it would. "Today's decision sends a clear signal to companies that they must comply with all aspects of E.U. merger rules," Ms. Vestager remarked. "And it imposes a proportionate and deterrent fine on Facebook. The commission must be able to take decisions about mergers' effects on competition in full knowledge of accurate facts."

Access RDI's Facebook Research Report at:
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Twitter, Inc.'s shares had a semi-flat trading day and closed up 1.26% yesterday. The company will be rolling out a new way for marketers to find out about its members' internet habits in June. Starting next month on the 18th, Twitter will update its privacy policy and add features that will allow advertisers to access personal information about their members. The tool will allow companies to get more data about people who visit their sites and will allow the advertisers to see what their members are interested in. Unfortunately for members who do not want to be tracked, you're out of luck. Twitter will not have the "Do Not Track" Option anymore. It was one of the few social networks left that had this option. According to Marc Rotenberg, president of the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information, "Twitter's announcement is bad news for online privacy. The company dropped Do Not Track and gave advertisers access to more user data. Also, all of the settings now default to disclosure, which means users have to go in and change their privacy settings."

Access RDI's Twitter Research Report at:
https://ub.rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=TWTR

Our Actionable Research on Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) and Twitter, Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) can be downloaded free of charge at Research Driven Investing.

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Disclaimer: This article is written by an independent contributor of RDInvesting.com and reviewed by Nadia Noorani, CFA® charter holder. RDInvesting.com is neither a registered broker dealer nor a registered investment advisor. For more information please read our full disclaimer at www.rdinvesting.com/disclaimer.

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